Activists and representatives of baby saving organisations, including Just in Time Baby Sanctuary, gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday, October 24, to protest against proposals to criminalise Baby Savers.

The Department of Social Development, which oversees the Children’s Act, recently proposed legislation that could declare the act of mothers safely relinquishing their babies at baby saving facilities as illegal.

Baby Savers are anonymous drop-off points designed to prevent unsafe abandonment. When a baby is placed in one, multiple stakeholders are alerted – including the police, security companies, and social workers. The infant is then temporarily placed in the care of the organisation until a permanent home is found.

According to Georgina Caetano, the founder of Just in Time and a member of Baby Savers South Africa, the team handed a memorandum of demands to the President’s office, calling for the scrapping of the proposed changes and demanding legal recognition of safe baby surrender systems.

• Read the initial article here: Baby sanctuary opposes new amendments to criminalise Baby Savers

“Declaring baby savers illegal will increase the risk to newborns and other vulnerable infants. Therefore, we asked the President to intervene and acknowledge the reality in this country, where children continue to be found in toilets, dustbins, open fields, etc,” said Caetano.

The department’s stance is that these facilities are illegal, citing concerns about child abandonment and children’s right to family and cultural heritage.

The department also claims that baby-saving devices take away the responsibility of a mother or parent.

Caetano says mothers who safely relinquish their infants in a baby saver are often victims of rape, gender-based violence and forced prostitution, and these moves by the department undermine the right to life for vulnerable children.